The young emperor Huhai was a muddle-headed and incompetent ruler. Zhao Gao could do whatever he liked. He became so ambitious that he finally plotted to usurp the throne. But he was afraid that the other court officials wouldn’t obey him. To test whether or not they were loyal to him, Zhao Gao presented a stag to the young emperor one day and deliberately said it was a horse.

“Are you kidding?” the young emperor laughed. “You’re calling a stag a horse!”

Zhao Gao insisted that it was a horse. He then asked the other officials’ opinion. He said, in a threatening tone, “I said it was a horse. What would you say?”

Some officials kept silent because they were afraid of being persecuted by Zhao Gao. Some said yes just to flatter him. “Yes, your Highness, it’s a horse”. “It’s nothing but a horse.” But there were upright officials who spoke the truth. In the end, none of these officials could escape persecution by Zhao Gao.

(Source: english.cri.cn)

Legend has it that during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, about 1,500 years ago, there was a famous painter named Zhang.

He was good at painting people, animals, landscapes and the Buddha. His paintings were vivid and true to life. People said that the animals he drew could come out of the picture as soon as he gave them the finishing touches. To make sure, a large group of people gathered in a temple one day to see Zhang paint dragons.
Zhang painted four dragons on the wall. All of them were lifelike but didn’t have eyes. The watchers were puzzled and asked him why.
“If I draw the eyes, the dragons will fly off the wall.” Zhang replied.

“He’s just talking big!” some people thought.

Half believing and half doubting, the onlookers insisted that he add eyes to the dragons.

Urged on by the crowd, Zhang added eyeballs to two of the dragons.

In the twinkling of an eye, it turned dark and began raining hard. (Thunder) Accompanied by thunder and lightning, the two dragons started to move and soon flew into the sky. The two other dragons without eyes remained on the wall.

(Source: english.cri.cn)

Get something done in one go

During the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC), the State of Qi launched a war against the State of Lu. Qi had a stronger army than Lu. The king of Lu and his general Cao Gui led the army to meet Qi’s invading troops head-on. The two sides confronted with each other at Changshao.

The King of Lu was about to order his troops to take the offensive when Cao Gui stopped him.

“Not yet,” Cao Gui said. They stepped onto a high stage to observe Qi’s battle formation.

At this time, Qi’s troops charged head-on accompanied by vigorous drum beats.

The King of Lu wanted to rebut the charge but Cao Gui stopped him again.

After the while, the Qi army’s war drums sounded another charge. Again, Cao Gui stopped the King of Lu’s advance.

The Qi soldiers’ morale dwindled after two vain advance attempts. They regrouped for a third attack. The King of Lu took Cao Gui’s advice not to throw his troops into the battle and waited for an opportune moment.

After three charges without any battle, the morale of the Qi soldiers had greatly declined. They were also tired and sat down to rest.

“Now, the time has come!” Cao Gui said to his king who then gave the order. Now, Lu army’s war drums rolled thunderously and the soldiers valiantly charged the enemy. The Qi soldiers fled helter-skelter and the weaker Lu army eventually won the battle.

Originally, 一鼓作气 (yì gǔ zuò qì) means “The fighting spirit aroused by the first roll of drums is the highest”. Later people use it to say “ to press on to the finish without letup” or “ to have something done in a determined burst of energy”.

(Source: english.cri.cn)

Incorrectly relay an erroneous message ( so that the truth becomes increasingly distorted)

Once a hunter in the State of Chu was selling some pheasants he had caught. A man passed by and was surprised to see the beautiful birds.

“What birds are these?” he asked.

“Phoenixes,” the hunter answered, trying to cheat him.

“Gosh!” the man thought, “I’ve only heard of such birds but never saw one before.” He then asked the hunter,

“Can I buy one?”

“Sure, so long you can afford it.”

The man was rich. He offered one thousand ounces of gold. The hunter saw his chance of making more money, so he said, “No way, unless you pay me two thousand ounces.”

The rich man agreed to the price and the deal was made. After leaving the spot, he thought to himself: “The phoenix is the rarest bird on earth. And it’s a luck bird. The king must be very pleased if I present it to him. And then, ha, ha…”

He decided to send it to the palace the next day.

But alas! When he woke up the next morning, he found the bird dead!

The news spread to the capital. Everyone there believed the dead bird was a phoenix and said he was right to have decided to present it to the king.

When the king learned about this, he summoned the rich man to the palace and gave him a lot of gold and silk as a reward for his loyalty. The man was overjoyed because be got much more than what he had paid for that lucky bird.

Another story goes: Once an old man had a well sunk in his courtyard. With a well near at hand, he did not have to assign one of his sons to fetch water for the family any more. He was very happy with the well and one day, when discussing it with his sons, he said, “We seem to have one more hand in the family since we dug the well.” And everybody agreed.

What the old man said was overheard by a neighbour who told the story to his relatives. And they spread it to others and the story was spread far and wide. Of course there were more and more versions of it. In one version, it became a glaring absurdity—according to this version, when the old man was digging the wellin his courtyard, he dug out a strong man who was now helping him with all the farm work!

(Source: english.cri.cn)

Proficiency in a particular line

During the Warring States Period(475-221BC), the famous scholar Gongsun Long lived in the State of Zhao. Gongsun kept a circle of skilled people around him, and he was very fond of these people. He often said, “A wise man shouldn’t turn away anyone with a speciality.”

One day, a man dressed in tattered and dirty clothes came to offer himself to the scholar.

“I have a special skill,” he said.

“What skill is that?” Gongsun asked.

“I have a loud voice and I’m good at shouting.”

Gongsun looked round at his followers and asked, “Is there anyone else here who is good at shouting?”

“No,” they replied.

“Well,” Gongsun decided, “Since no one here has this particular talent, I should take him in.”

Not long afterwards, Gongsun and his followers went on a journey. They came to a wide river, and the ferry boat was on the opposite bank. The group was at a loss for what to do. Gongsun suddenly thought of the shouting expert and turned to him. The man immediately realized it was time to demonstrate his skill. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and shouted as loud as he could, “Hey, ferryman! Come over here! We want to cross the river.”

As his piercing yell ended, the ferry boat set out across the river to fetch them.

Gongsun was very pleased with this new follower and his special skill.

一技之长 (yí jì zhī cháng) originally referred to the shouting skill of that man. But now it’s used to describe anyone with a special professional skill.

(Source: english.cri.cn)

欣欣向荣 (Xīn xīn xiàng róng)

Growing luxuriantly

Tao Yuanming(365 or 372 or 376-427, sources vary), a famous poet of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, is known and loved particularly for his pastoral poems. He could have had many chances to gain official promotions during his lifetime, but he recognized official society as corrupt and evil. Tao had once served as a county magistrate. But he was disgusted by the corrupt practices of the other officials and quit the job after only eight days. He moved to the countryside to live in seclusion. Soon afterward he wrote a poem to express the joys he discovered in his hometown and his peaceful seclusion. One passage translates roughly like this:

My fellow farmers told me spring was coming,
And they were going to till the land to the west of the village,
They went by cart or by boat, passing deep valleys or streams winding through hills.
Trees and plants were grown luxuriantly,
And spring water gently flowed.
We are so happy and joyful here,
For on this beautiful awakened land,
Everything is blooming.

You can see clearly that the poet was very delighted with bucolic life. The poem also expresses his love for the beauty of nature. What’s more, this fresh air he breathed formed a sharp contrast to the stuffy atmosphere of the rotten official circles he had once worked in.

From Tao Yuanming’s line “Trees and plants are growing luxuriantly” comes the idiom 欣欣向荣 (Xīn xīn xiàng róng). The idiom is often used metaphorically to describe a flourishing business or a vigorously developing cause. In that case, it can be translated as “flourishing”, “prosperous” or “Prosper and thrive”. When it’s used to describe people, you can interpret it as “having one’s star on the rise”.

(Source: english.cri.cn)

树倒猢狲散 (shù dǎo hú sūn sàn)

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter — when an influential person falls from power, his hangers-on disperse

During the Song Dynasty, a neighbouring tribe to its north called Nüzhen established a kingdom named Jin. It became stronger and stronger and seized large areas of Song’s territory. General Yue Fei (1103 — 1142) led the Song army in putting up a heroic resistance. They won many battles and recovered a lot of the lost land. Just as Yue Fei and his troops were pushing on in the flush of victory, the treacherous Prime Minister Qin Hui who had secretly conspired with the invaders, assumed the emperor’s name, recalled Yue Fei and killed him on a fabricated charge. Yue Fei has always been respected as a national hero while Qin Hui has been cursed throughout the centuries.

Well, notorious as Qin Hui was, he had his followers, since there were people who curried favour with the powerful. Cao Yong was one of them. He was a today and had some king of ties of kinship with Qin Hui. After Qin Hui became Prime Minister, Cao Yong had made rapid advancement in his career.

Cao Yong’s brother-in-law Li Dexin, who was only a village head, frowned upon his deeds and showed no interest in him. Cao Yong was unhappy with Li. He couldn’t bear that a small potato like Li should dare to look down upon him. He began to harbour resentment in his mind. He went so far as to instigate the county magistrate to threaten Li time and again. But Li Dexin never gave in.

When Qin Hui, the treacherous prime minister and Cao Yong’s patron died, all the people he had helped to power fell one after another. Cao Yong was demoted to a remote area. Li Dexin wrote an essay prose, describing Qin Hui as a big tree and Cao Yong and his like as monkeys that rode roughshod over others under the protection of the tree. Now that the tree had fallen, the monkeys cannot but flee helter-skelter. Li sent his essay to Cao who trembled with anger after reading it.

Interestingly, Qin Hui had been a poor teacher of a private school before he became an official. He once wrote a poem when he was tired of teaching those mischievous boys. In the poem, he wrote of his pupils as monkeys and himself as their king. He wrote: “if I had three hundred mu of irrigated land, I wouldn’t have to be a king of those monkeys.” So, Li Dexin made his comparison with good grounds. It had been provided by Qin Hui himself! That makes the satire more bitter.

From Li Dexin’s prose comes the idiom 树倒猢狲散 (shù dǎo hú sūn sàn). When someone of influence falls from power and all his lackeys fall likewise, this metaphor can be used.

(Source: english.cri.cn)

玩火自焚(Wán huǒ zì fén)

He who plays with fire will get burnt

During the Spring and Autumn Period(770–476BC),Prince Zhou Xu of the State of Wei killed his elder brother Duke Huan and became the monarch of Wei.

As the new ruler, Zhou Xu cruelly exploited and oppressed his people and indulged in wars of aggression. By launching wars,he tried to divert the people’s attention and wase their discontent with him so as to consolidate his ruling position.
When Duke Yin of the State of Lu leant zbout Zhou Xu’s usurpation of state power, he asked a senior official of Lu named Zhong Zhong, “Do you think Zhou Xu’s move will succeed?” Zhong Zhong said, “Counting on force Zhou Xu staged an armed rebellion, bringing disaster to the people. He won’t win their support. He’s cruel and brutal, using savage means of torture, and he’s capricious, so few of his close friends follow him. With the common folks opposing him and his close friends deserting him, it will be impossible for him to succeed.” Zhong Zhong added, “War is like fire. If one starts was endlessly without restraint, he’ll certainly burn himself. In my opinion, what’s in store for Zhou Xu is failure.

Sure enough, in less than a year, the people of Wei, with the help the State of clean, overthrew Zhou Xu and killed him.
From Zhong Zhong’s remarks people derived the idiom 玩火自焚(Wán huǒ zì fén) to means that those who evil will finally ruin themselves.

Another idiom developed from the words of the same man reads 众叛亲离(zhòng pàn qīn lí )—The masses are in rebellion and one’s followers are deserting. Ti xixidly describes how isolated someone can be.

(Source: english.cri.cn)